


Burn Them All

by mgsmurf



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Coda, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 23:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12544128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mgsmurf/pseuds/mgsmurf
Summary: Daenerys reminds Jaime of another Targaryen and of another time. Jaime's thoughts during the battle in "Spoils of War."





	Burn Them All

'Burn them all,' echos in Jaime's head. Heat fills the air, and the putrid smell of burning flesh. Shrill screams of his men sound from far away. A high-pitched cackle echos off stone walls. Jaime wheels his horse around amidst the chaos. The dragon sweeps in for another attack. The black beast is almost as large as the skeletons of the first dragons that once lined the Red Keep's throne room. The silver hair of its rider shimmers in the sunlight, the silver of Prince Rhaegar he'd once wanted to believe in, the silver of long tangled tresses around a beaked face with mad purple eyes. 

'Burn them all.' Men stumble towards the river, roasting alive in their gilded red armor. They run in terror; flames dance behind as flames once danced up the men the Mad King deemed a threat. A horse bolts from the burning cart of grain behind it. Blackened bones and charred flesh clatter to the ground as dragonfire consumes another line of men. The green flames of wildfire dance before his sight. A cackling echos in his head. 'Burn them all.'

Jaime freezes. His heart pounds and his vision fogs. His hand, slick with sweat, slips in his gauntlet. In the distance, a bolt hits the dragon and the beast spirals toward the ground. Jaime feels the heavy weight of a sword in his missing hand, sees terror in purple eyes as they realize too late the folly of keeping one's captive as one's only guard. 

Then, just like that sound rushes back: the screams of the burned, the shouting of men, the clang of metal and shrill yells of the Dothraki. Before him, the dragon stumbles in the mud. The silver haired rider, Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of the Mad King, slips from its back. A cackle of laughter fills the smoky air. 'Burn them all.' He could end this all here and now, the madness and the destruction. 

Jaime spurs his house and leans over to pull a lance from a burning hulk of men. He once was a master of the joust. Even in his off hand the weight of the lance feels powerful. He spurs his horse faster. Air whips his hair and his heart pounds with the fall of hooves. At the last moment, the dragon raises its massive head, and Jaime finds himself staring down the face of terror itself. Green flames burst in his head and a force slams into him from the left. He and Bronn fly sideways. Flames singe them as they plunge into the chill water of the river. 

Jaime feels himself sinking. Light flickers weaker overhead. The heavy smell of burning flesh hangs in the air, screams echo off stone walls. The Mad King throws back his head as another cackle racks his thin body. His angular face grows into the black of a dragon's. 'Burn them all. Burn them all.' And so she had.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure this lives up to quite the story I wanted. Given what happened with the Mad King I have always thought that Jaime suffers some PTSD from that experience and that Daenerys' attack by Drogon would have brought that back up. Part of this was the well done job of the battle in the show and how much they framed it in Jaime's POV.


End file.
